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The wealthiest investors in 2017

George Soros. Photo: Shutterstock

It is Christmas time, research slows down, markets are calmer and trading volumes decrease at a rate inversely proportional to the rate of consumption of alcohol. At least that is how it is supposed to work.

What is plainly clear is that from now till the end of the year it gets increasingly difficult to gather information and generate ideas that are of much interest to the regular reader. The year is nearly over and hopefully whatever had to happen has already happened. Investment decisions have been made and barring any unfortunate turn of events, accumulated profits should last onto the New Year.

So, faced with a blank screen and since we are now living in the age of billionaires, I thought it would be interesting to present a list of the wealthiest fund managers in 2017. The following list does not include the wealthiest people in the world but only those that have made money through investments. The following information is sourced from Forbes.

George Soros is the world’s richest hedge fund billionaire with an estimated net worth of $25.2 billion. The legendary hedge fund manager recently hired Dawn Fitzpatrick, one of Wall Street's most prominent women, to run his investment portfolio as chief investment officer of $30 billion Soros Fund Management which oversees Soros’ personal fortune as well as assets belonging to his foundation.

James Simons, the quantitative trading genius behind Renaissance Technologies, retired from his hedge fund firm in 2010, but he still plays a role at Renaissance and continues to benefit from its strong performance. With quantitative trading a rare area of strength in the hedge fund world in recent years, investors have been rushing into Renaissance and the firm now manages some $36 billion. Simons’ estimated net worth has reached $18 billion.

Ray Dalio is the founder of the world's biggest hedge fund firm, Bridgewater Associates, which manages $160 billion. Dalio’s All Weather fund seeks to perform well in good markets and bad. Dalio has an estimated net worth of $16.8 billion.

Steve Cohen is one of the most successful hedge fund managers ever and has a net worth of $13 billion. He now presides over his family office, Point 72 Asset Management. It was formerly a hedge fund firm, SAC Capital, which was forced to return outside money in the wake of an insider-trading scandal that cost Cohen $1.8 billion in penalties. Cohen is now preparing for January 2018, when a two-year ban on managing non-family money expires.

David Tepper has been steadily returning money to client investors of his Appaloosa Management. The hedge fund firm now manages some $17 billion. Its funds posted returns in the middle single digits in 2016. With a net worth of $11 billion, Tepper, a former Goldman Sachs trader, is now based in Miami Beach instead of northern New Jersey.

John Paulson remains one of the hedge fund world’s richest billionaires, though a lot less rich than he used to be. Paulson saw his net worth drop by nearly $2 billion in 2016 to $7.9 billion. Paulson is famed for betting against subprime mortgages at the peak of the 2007 credit bubble and making billions. Since then, he has suffered several wrong way trades, including bets on a Greek recovery and the island of Puerto Rico.

Disclaimer: This article was issued by Antoine Briffa, Investment Manager at Calamatta Cuschieri. For more information visit, www.cc.com.mt. The information, view and opinions provided in this article is being provided solely for educational and informational purposes and should not be construed as investment advice, advice concerning particular investments or investment decisions, or tax or legal advice. Calamatta Cuschieri Investment Services Ltd has not verified and consequently neither warrants the accuracy nor the veracity of any information, views or opinions appearing on this website.

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